Retrospect

I SAT alone at my window,
While the pattering raindrops brought
Along with their music upon the roof,
A lengthy train of thought.

I stepped aboard of it quickly,
And rapidly on I sped,
Away to the scenes of my childhood days.
I followed where fancy led.

I roamed the fragrant meadow,
And through the silent wood;
At last I came to the babbling brook,
And sadly there I stood.

Into its clear water gazing
I felt a strange, sweet spell
Enthral my being slowly
As o'er my life it fell.

I saw in the waters merry,
Dear faces of long ago,
That had drifted away on the sea of life,
As the winds blew loud or low.

My brain grew dazed with horror,
And my heart was wrung with pain;
Some barks were dashed on a rock-bound coast.
They could not return again.

I saw the same old mill-pond,
And beside it the noisy mill,
And once again I heard the bell
Of the old Church on the hill.

There was the dear old School-House,
The scene of my childhood joys,
And in the yard I romped among
The happy girls and boys.

And once again came "May Day,"
When the fields were dressed in green,
And roses shed their rich perfume,
The children crowned me Queen.

I saw again our own sweet home
Half hidden among the trees,
My parents, brothers, sisters and I,
As happy and busy as bees.

Around the door of the homestead,
The sweet Wisteria vines,
And on the old oak in the yard
The clinging ivy twines.

There stands the grim old court-house,
And the Jail with dingy cells,
And on the Church the old town-clock
The fleeting moment tells.

Next I came to the old town Graveyard
And entered with silent tread,
And dropped a tear over the grassy grave
Of the peacefully sleeping dead.